Wraith's N16 Almera Sport

Got my car back today with shiny new K-Sport Coilovers fitted.

Not had much of a chance to play with it yet due to not getting it back until 4pm and the roads being wet and greasy but it's really flat and stable through the corners and the ride is hard but not too harsh (until you hit a crappy bit of road and lord knows we have plenty of them in SE Scotland). Ride is a bit bouncier when on an undulating road but I recall Steven had the same issue and sorted that with a little tweak of the damping. I quite liked the handling on the N16 but this is now far, far better.

Apparently the coilovers went on OK but needed some fabrication to get brake line brackets sorted and took ages to get set up properly due to the amount of adjustments possible. The mechanic who fitted them for me thought they were a really nice bit of kit, though.

I had my mid-section silencer swapped with a straight pipe at the same time as mine kept sagging and would definately snag.

I've not totally slammed it; about 1/2" between front wheel and arch for now so maybe a 40mm drop but it could be dropped a lot more.

No signs of snagging, rubbing or binding anywhere.

Will get piccys up at the weekend.
 
PICS! NOW!

I said on the test set that the supplied brake house mounts were too long, but with a bit of bending I found them to be fine.

They are infinitely adjustable really. What sort of dampening adjustment level did you go for?

I found stiffening up the front more than the rear sorted the bouncing problem. Sure, it's not a limo ride, but it's damn worth it!

Wait till you get it on a good road man. :D

Get yourself some clear spray grease....
 
Pics will have to wait until Saturday as I have other bits and bobs I want to get done before the next set of pics - want to try the heat and chill method to see if I can pop out a nasty parking ding (right down the driver's door), remove the stickers and polish up the re-tinted rear lights. In any case I won't be home in daylight again until then.

I just asked the garage to set everything up as 'average' with the toe-in, camber etc set the same as stock.

Figured that was the best baseline to start with before fiddling with the setup.
 
Piccys as requested - I've not dropped it too far (yet).

New since last pics ..

K-sport coilovers.

Removed centre section silencers.

Window tints (did them myself, you can't really see how shoddy a job I did from the pics but not bad for £25 and it was my first time)

Wind deflectors.

Darkened the tints on rear lights.

Removed all stickers.

Colour-matched tax disk (has to happen every few years I guess) :cool:

Click to make big.



 
Thanks guys.

Tommo; I (finally) followed your advice on t-cutting and polishing the rear lights and it's made a huge difference for only a few minutes work.
 
Looks pretty damn nice, still not sure if I'm a fan of those wheels though. Last pic looks awesome!
 
Couple of new pics with the new mudflaps not 100% happy with them as I didn't account for the car being at an angle on the jack when I fitted them so they are a bit squint but they will do for now.

mudflaps11.jpg

mudflaps12.jpg

mudflaps13.jpg

mudflaps14.jpg
 
Would have done if I could afford them but am skint for the next couple of months so these are just a make-do for now though might try again if I can find matt black material for them instead of the glossy black. Not keen on the moulded solid plastic Almera mud-guards, do Nissan do rally style soft flaps for the N16?
 
No worries mate, knew that this would be one of those things that most people won't like even if I had done a perfect job as those sorts of flaps are usually seen on rally slags rather than shiny street cars so would look a bit out of place. Still, never know unless you take a punt and give it a shot.

Might try again with matt black and change the shape a bit; start and inch or two further up the arch and have a straight edge flush to the starting point on the arch rather than a protruding shoulder - that should fit the car's shape better as it's a smooth shape rather that the angular scooby/evo/mk3 shape which is where you most often see these sort of flaps.

To be fair, though, they do look a bit subtler on the car than in the photos where they stand out a lot due to me buggering about with the contrast and brightness so you could actually see them, these are some unbuggered-about-with photos..

mudflaps15.jpg

mudflaps16.jpg
 
Some things needing done now, just having to prioritise.

Need front pads, full service and a flexi exhaust section so that's all got to be done first. Tempted to go for the Jperformance manifold and front-section though.

Since I got the car I've been troubled by the passenger side doors. They just didn't seem 'right'. Now they have bubbles all along the bottom and the top layer of paint is coming off there, almost like it's rubbing off the bubbles, to show dark green underneath. Looks like rust bubbling deep under the paint little dots of rust on the edges. Guess doors from a scrappy after a hit? Need a fair bit of fixing and a respray.

Big dent in the driver's side rear door thanks to some clumsy bastard in a car park. Could probably be a mobile paintless repair job.

Front passenger arch is scraped down to the primer and slightly dented by a different clumsy bastard in a different carpark.

Few dots of rust on the tailgate, nothing that can't be fixed with a touch-up kit.

If I had time and money I'd get it stripped and just get a full respray in black or white but don't so it's going to have to be patchwork for now. Pissed off because it was looking in good nick only 10 months ago and most of the problems are due to other people's uselessness.

Also got a couple of weird noises - a droning whine that could be a wheel bearing on the way out and twice when pulling a slow (from a stop), tight left-hand turn I get a loud and alarming thudding knocking sound in time with acceleration that sounds like it's coming from the front-right quarter somewhere. Sounds a bit like a flat tyre but more solid and metallic.

My poor first attempt at window tinting is annoying me now and needs redone by a pro.

Oh, and the chrome parts of the alloys are looking corroded and a bit crappy. Need a refurb.

Hopefully have some of this fixed before Fast And Modified so I'm not spending the whole time bitching.

On the positive side have plans to get a splitter on the front and to colour-code it and the bumpstrips though still not sure whether to go for the existing body colour or gloss black.
 
Ooo what splitter? :) Gloss black could look tacky so maybe buy a second set of front bump strips (I can send you some :)) and test on those? (ok that probably looks like an awful plug but I'd forgoten I had some spare bump strips when I started the sentance :O).
 
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